With major legislative concessions in the pipeline, the Belfast Telegraph speculates that the ball will now lie in the IRA’s court, to make a decisive move and kick-start the process again. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Emerging from a tradition that many would characterise as anti-intellectual, this piece from Roy Garland charting a plausable defence of Trimble’s outburst last week is all the more interesting: “There are two kinds of unionism. One rejoices in intimate links with a pluralist, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic British state whose openness to the world and tolerance of difference holds people within its orbit. Their attachment to the union is compatible with a love of this island and appreciation of Anglo-Irish and sometimes …
In the wake of the DUP’s annual conference, the Belfast Telegraph still believes its lack of an expressed political vision is the party’s greatest weakness: “The weakness of the DUP’s position has always been its failure to come up with any alternative which would command cross-community support. The latest defiant refusal to negotiate with “the representatives of terrorism” does not suggest that anything has changed.” Update: William Graham in yesterday’s Irish News reported on Ian Paisley’s list of demands, and …
Democratic Dialogue is in the news again, defending its attack on the high staffing levels of the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister in it latest bulletin. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
There have been raids this morning resulting in the arrest of several individuals, mostly in the Waterside district of Derry and the Co Antrim town of Ballymoney. Update: more from Associated Press. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Henry McDonald reports on the effects of CCTV in an interface area of North Belfast. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Pléigheann Ian Malcolm ar an substaint den ráiteas deifreach a thainig ó David Trimble ar na mallaibh. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Tá an t-iriseoir, Robert Fisk, le 30ú léacht chuimhneacháin Dhomhnach na Fola a thabhairt i nDoire, Dé Luain seo chugainn. Is é Crimes Without Punishment teideal na léachta ina gcuirfidh sé an próiseas síochána anseo i gcomórtas lena mhacasamhail sa Mheánoirthear. Níos mó. Faighte againn trí Bheo. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
One unlikely supporter of David Trimble came in the form of Eilish O’Hanlon. Never is her wit so wry and biting as when it has a clear target in mind. This time she went after Trimble’s various critics. We’ll begin by quoting her last line, first: “FINALLY, a correction. In the Sunday Independent last week, Jody Corcoran wrote that the Troubles began ‘in 1968’. This should, of course, have read ‘approximately 800 years ago with the arrival of those filthy …
The wrangle over DUP selection in Mid Ulster continues. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Dennis Watson, an Orangeman and former member of the UUP told the DUP’s conference at the weekend that the link between the Order and his former party would be broken in the near future. We carried various Unionist views on this scenario at the beginning of November. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The US Consulate took the unusual step of releasing figures from one of their private polls, which seems to contradict the impression that support for the Belfast Agreement is fading fast amongst the protestant population. Interestingly, there seems to be no single reason unifying those opposed. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Gregory Campbell complains that the proposed name change is sectarian and divisive. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Veteran politician Ian Paisley proved that at 77, he is still capable reproducing his own inimitable brand of rhetoric at his party’s annual conference at the weekend. Though there is a certain incongruity between the character of the leader’s speech and that of party secretary Nigel Dodds, who spoke of “…a good and viable alternative and only the DUP has the strength and ability to negotiate a better deal.” Update: Paisley has told his party that anyone making contact with …
Henry McDonald says that the government is ready to offer Sinn Fein a deal, in which former prisoners will be allowed to sit on the district policing boards, if they take their seats on the central board, giving their approval to the PSNI as the legitimate police force in the North for the first time. But there are signs that if this move were attempted without substantial moves towards IRA disbandment, Unionists would simply walk out of the central board. …
This is the first of a series of three articles telling the story of a family in Derry that has been in dispute with local Republican paramilitaries. It’s a bit of a long read, but worth it. Although Republicans are by no means the worst offenders in terms of intimidation and the use of exclusion orders – the semi state body charged with mediating in such circumstances dealt with over 900 cases in the last year, the majority victims of …
In a week in which the poets of Ireland have held more space on the Letter than usual, Paul Durcan joins Paul Muldoon and Tom Paulin in the headlines. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Eoghan Harris is annoyed with with David Trimble over his remarks attacking the Republic last week. “…why has Trimble twice attacked an Irish State that no longer exists? Some people think he’s trying to flank the DUP. But as Professor Robert Mahoney remarked to me this week (returning from America to his current beat in Belfast) the UUP can’t go further right than the DUP, so it might as well stay in the decent centre. That insight is crucial to …
“There was a time when a man could bring almost anything on to an aeroplane providing it wasn’t alive and bent on savaging people. Not any more.” More here. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
In an article in the print version of last night’s Belfast Telegraph, Noel McAdam asks some interesting questions about the real intentions of the DUP. He suggests that in some government circles in Dublin are muttering about the idea that a post Paisley DUP might be the only Unionist party able to make any deal stick. He charts the party’s move from ‘no direct negotiations with enemies of Ulster’ to the suggestion that ‘an agreed honest broker could flit between …
